Box
by that lionhearted vagabond
Summary: If one were being honest, most would admit that they never once thought that Lily Luna Potter and Scorpius Hyperion Malfoy would ever fall in love, and yet they did anyway. Two-shot This most likely isn't going to be finished, sorry.


**Disclaimer: I own nothing, it's slightly disappointing **

**I'm dedicating this to emilyswain, who has kept me going when I doubted I'd ever finish, as well as to anyone who told me they looked forward to this, giving me that last push to get it done, hopefully it's worth the wait . Thank you so much! Also****, THIS IS A TWO PARTER!**

_Box_

Lily Potter and Scorpius Malfoy were not the people you would have expected to fall in love, they weren't the ones that you looked at and just knew had fallen head over heels for each other, there was no tell, no sign, in fact, if one were being honest, most would admit that they never once thought that Lily Luna Potter and Scorpius Hyperion Malfoy would ever fall in love, and yet they did anyway.

There was nothing about the pair that screamed adoration, the lion, who, so much like her father, proudly held her heart in her sleeve, whose emotions played out on her face, who chattered away like the innocent she was, and then, the closed off snake, who's eyes were unreadable, having grown up hated by the dark, for turning to the light, and hated by the light, for his ancestor's darkness.

There are millions of tiny little moments that make up Lily and Scorpius, more than anyone could possibly record, but there are several that are contained within a single, worn, cardboard box. Some are rather substantial memories, the ones that people remember when thinking of the pair, there are little ones that seem to serve no significance to anyone except the two main protagonists of this story, and then, there are the ones that have been hidden away, known only to those who lived them, or have opened that old cardboard box.

Inside that box is a part of the story that is Lily and Scorpius, a story that starts in a very unconventional way. Indeed, the tale is established in the backyard of a moderately sized home in the United Kingdom, underneath an open window, at 3:42 pm on July twenty-third when Lily was six, and Scorpius was eight. But to fully explain their irregular introduction we must go a little further back.

_***;*;*;*;***_

_July 23, 2015_

Lily was a little bit peeved at her older brother at the moment, not Albus, she normally got along well enough with him, despite the fact that he could be a little bit daft sometimes, but that was to be expected, he was a boy after all, no it was James that Lily was upset with. With good reason, James, in all his twelve year old superiority, seemed to be under the misguided impression that because Lily was only six, and because she was a girl, that she couldn't do any of the things him and his friends did. For example, leaning out the window and touching the bird house that hung outside of it (which normally resulted in whoever had been stupid enough to hang out a window, falling to the ground headfirst).

Now, because Lily was a girl, and girls could do anything boys could do, and much more, she had to prove to her rather dense, close-minded brother that she was perfectly capable of touching the bird house. Not of course that she could do it when he was around, for he would simply pluck her off the windowsill and drop her on the couch, due to the unfair advantage over her he had when it came to size there wasn't much she could do to prevent the degrading event. Except to out-think him and perform the daring task while he wasn't around, which was, as you may have predicted, exactly what she did.

This was how Lily Luna Potter came to be pulling herself up onto the counter in the cheerful yellow kitchen of the Potter residence on 3:39 pm, on July twenty-third. She managed not to slip and bruise her elbow, which was what she normally did when pulling herself up onto a counter, and as she made her way over to the open window she was feeling fairly confident. Well as confident as six year-olds could get anyway. So she hooked her feet under the honey colored windowsill, the proper window-leaning technique, and started to lean out. At first she didn't go very far, just sticking her head out and stretching her arms as far in front of her as she could, and then, gradually, she began to lean further and further out. Then the inevitable occurred, she fell.

Now to be fair to Lily, due to her diminutive six year old structure, there was no possible way for her to have reached out far enough to touch the birdhouse in the first place, and really she had done well to lean out as far as she did. Had she known this fact at the time it probably wouldn't have comforted her however, because there is some rather disconcerting about falling onto the ground, regardless of the fact that Lily was a witch whose accidental magic would most likely prevent her from being too badly injured. The alarmingly nerve-wracking experience was probably not helped along by the fact that rather than the expected green grass rushing up to meet her free falling form, there was an unfamiliar blonde head. This head, as you probably presumed, was attached to a body, more specifically a young boy, who, judging from the rather loud, dramatic "oomph" he made as she crashed into him and knocked them both to the ground, did not appreciate being fallen on.

Lily had never had the characteristic shyness that most young children are afflicted with, so rather than taking the normal route of the average child and burst into tears, she smiled brightly at the poor rumpled looking boy beneath her. Shifting, so she as sat cross-legged on the boy's chest she looked down at him and said, as it were perfectly usual for little girls to fall out of the sky and land unceremoniously on top of strangers,

"Hi!"

Scorpius, for you must have figured out that this blonde child was Scorpius by now, blinked warily up at the small red-head sitting on top of him, and groaned at the developing bump on the back of his head from the pebble that had cushioned his fall. Lily looked rather upset at the boy's less than enthusiastic response and asked,

"Are you okay?" Scorpius once again blinked at the overly energetic child that had yet to move from her perch on top of him,

"How would you feel if a small child landed on top of you?" He asked dryly, sounding surprisingly mature for a boy of his age. Lily, who had a great deal of older cousins, both understood and acknowledged the sarcasm in his tone, but had yet to figure out how to respond to comments of that nature, so she always replied as if the question was not rhetorical.

"Well," she said, pulling at a strand of gently curled red hair, "It would probably hurt, 'cause falling down normally hurts, and it would probably hurt a little bit more if someone landed on top of you, but probably not that much, and I could always pretend to cry so Mummy would give me chocolate, so kinda bad, but not really bad." It was at that precise moment that Scorpius decided he rather like this strange, lively child settled on top of him, how could you not when she so willingly admitted into tricking her mum into giving her chocolate? It probably didn't help that Lily was one of the cutest little kids Scorpius had ever seen.

It was then, still tugging on her hair, that she realized the boy underneath her was in fact, a complete stranger. Six year olds (or most of them anyway) do not generally have the same self-preservation instinct of those a little older. So rather than running away from the stranger standing under her kitchen window, she asked, as if it was a perfectly normal situation,

"Who are you?" Scorpius had obviously decided that humoring the girl was the best course of action to take, for he answered her truthfully and without hesitation.

"I'm Scorpius-" he was forced to discontinue his sentence however, when she started bouncing excitedly, seemingly oblivious to the fact that she was jarring his ribs,

"Oh, you're Al's friend aren't you? The one he met in Dia-Dai-Diagon Alley," she said stumbling over the street name. Scorpius simply nodded, having given up trying to catch every word she shot out of her mouth with lightning speed, getting her to do most of the talking until Albus could come rescue him.

So they continued in that fashion for about ten minutes, and by the time Albus came back, brooms in hand, and yelled at her to get off of Scorpius and to go to her room, Scorpius knew that she liked quidditch, she wanted to be an auror like her dad when she grew up, and that her favorite color was orange, which was horrible because no one ever let her wear it due to her hair.

So Lily scampered up and ran towards the backdoor, but not before giving Scorpius an awkward hug (for he was still on the ground). Back in her room she pulled a shoebox out from under her bed, where she'd put it to hide it from her brothers, and extracted the diary Aunt Fleur had given her, using the handwriting she had been practicing with Aunt Hermione, she began to write about the blonde boy named Scorpius she had fallen on, all thoughts of the birdhouse forgotten.

_***;*;*;*;***_

_October 12, 2015_

Over the next few months Lily hung out with Scorpius (and by extension, Albus) whenever she could, and her big brother was normally fine with it, but every once in a while he would tell her to sod off, and Lily would stick her tongue out at him, while Scorpius swung her up on his shoulders, which worked because she was small for her age, and he was tall for his.

While she was up there Scorpius, or Scorp as she had taken to calling him, would tell her stories, not about princess' in towers, but rather witches who fought dragons, occasionally with a wizard to fall in love with when she got back. Scorpius quickly became her favorite person to be around. Scorpius was an only child, so he hadn't learned to feel irritated by someone younger than him yet, and besides lacking the heart to ditch her, Scorpius also genuinely liked the girl, with her lively personality and rapid fire speech.

This was the position they walked in now, Lily's head rested in her hands, which were propped up by her elbows, which in turn were messing up Scorpius' white blonde hair.

"You gotta tell me Scorp!"

"Actually I don't."

"Please Scorp, just a hint," she pleaded,

"It's awesome."

"But that could be anything," the small red head protested,

"No, it could be anything awesome, besides you'll find out soon enough," he said.

"Four days,"

"You'll just have to wait, it's a surprise."

"I hate surprises though"

"No you don't"

"Yes I do."

"You don't and I have proof."

"What proof?"

"Your facial expression."

"What do you mean my, oh-" Scorpius had just pushed open the door to the Potter residence,

"SURPRISE!"

"Told you, you love surprises."

"Shut up Scorp," she whispered absentmindedly as one of her many uncles lifted her off Scorpius' shoulders and into the air.

The party had been going on for two hours by the time Lily's presents were brought out, and there were a lot of them. From the miniature broomstick form her Uncle Ron (miniature broom, not toy) to the pretty powder blue robes from Aunt Fleur, she loved them all, just as she was about to give her final you-guys-are-the-best-ever-thanks-so-much speech, paired with the look-at-me-I'm-cute smile that she had been working on with her mum, she noticed that there was one more gift, wrapped sleekly in dark blue paper, about as wide as a piece of parchment, but thicker.

She pulled it open with uncharacteristic carefulness, not wanting to ruin such pretty paper. When she finally slid the gift out she was met by a book. Not a book of the boring text-book variation, or a picture book like the ones on her bookshelf upstairs, but rather several dozen pieces of parchment held together with a beautiful light green silk ribbon, on the front was a magnificent drawing of a red headed witch, dressed as a warrior, battling a rather fierce looking dragon. On the inside, in Scorpius' flowing script, was a collection of the stories he'd been telling her for the last few months, complete with pictures of mind blowing detail. Lily looked around and found Scorpius standing next to her brother, and then proceeded to hurl herself at him, hugging him and thanking him over and over and over, saying it was her favorite present _ever_, and then promising him that she would make him a chocolate cake, which she would.

Later, after she'd had every story read to her by a variety of people, she pulled the cardboard box out from under her bed and put the book in for safe keeping.

_***;*;*;*;***_

_January 17, 2016_

The storm raged outside Lily Potter's window, roaring violently, the wind whirling through the trees, making an unbearable racket, the sky was covered with ominous black clouds, and lit up every couple minutes as lightning forked through the air, and thunder boomed deafeningly. It was not a beautiful storm that poets raved about, nor was it a particularly dangerous one, especially inside the protective wards surrounding the Potter house, but to the seven year old who sat awake, clutching a worn, stuffed dragon (named Misty, ironically) to her chest, it was truly petrifying, so she did what most little sisters do while in a terrified state of mind, she went to find comfort with her older brother.

Not James, for they, with a six year age gap, were no really that close, but Albus, who had always been understanding of her, even now, as he approached the age were hanging out with one's little sister was considered very "uncool." She of course forgot that Albus had invited his best friend over to spend the night, which was very unlike her considering how infatuated she was with Scorpius.

Albus was fast asleep when Lily entered his room, which had been expected, Lily's plan had been to crawl into bed beside him, and she would have executed her scheme perfectly had it not been for the unaccounted for variable sitting in the corner reading a book by the light of a small lamp. The variable (Scorpius) looked up as Lily entered the room, the seven year old looked almost comically adorable, wearing an old shirt of James' that dwarfed her, reaching her knees and giving the appearance of a shapeless dress, Misty was dragging on the floor behind her, and her eyes were wide, presumably because of the storm.

"Hey Lily, watcha doing here?" Lily let out a rather amusing squeak as she noticed the figure in the corner of the room,

"Oh, umm… I'm lonely, and I can't get to sleep 'cause of the storm, not that I'm afraid of it," she rambled, while Scorpius watched, an amused smirk playing at his lips. Lily, regaining her composure, drifted over to where Scorpius sat,

"Watcha reading?" He held up the book in his hands, showcasing the title (_Hippogriffs: Beautiful or Beastly?)_ and the photo, showing a greyish hippogriff in mid-bow.

"You like hippogriffs?"

"Not really, but I couldn't get to sleep with the storm and all, and this was the first thing I saw."

"Oh." They sat in silence for a minute or two, staring at Albus.

"Does your brother always sleep so soundly? He's like a brick." Just like that the ice was broken, as Lily burst into giggles, sitting on the very edge of Scorpius' chair, elbowing him to get him to scoot over, they chattered on about this and that, forgetting the tempest still raging outside. Ten minutes in, while Lily was giggling yet again, she came to a realization; she really, _really_ wanted hot chocolate. Which is exactly why she proposed to Scorpius that they go get some, Scorpius however was not as convinced on the matter as she was,

"Can you make hot chocolate?"

"Everybody can make hot chocolate," she answered, looking slightly offended at the accusation,

"The stove's awfully high up though," he pointed out,

"I'll use a stool,"

"It's very dark downstairs,"

"I'll bring a lamp,"

"The stove gets really really hot,"

"Scorp?"

"Yes firefly," she was momentarily distracted by the use of the unfamiliar nickname,

"Firefly?"

"That's what I'm calling you from now on," Lily tilted her head to the side as she stared at him, obviously confused,

"But why?"

"Because you're always so bright and happy, even at," he looked at the clock, "Two in the morning,"

"Well then why not call me Sunshine or something?"

"Sunshine is overused," he said, and Lily didn't bother to fight him, it was late and she was tired, but the lightening flashing across the sky banished all thoughts of going to bed, so instead she opted to say,

"I still want hot chocolate." Scorpius sighed in defeat,

"Fine, but I'm making it," Lily didn't object, she was up hours past her bedtime and getting her favorite drink in the whole-wide-world, what did she have to complain about? Nothing as far as she was concerned, so she was understandingly quite happy as she followed Scorpius down the stairs into her kitchen, Misty dragging on the floor behind her.

As Scorpius grabbed some milk and turned the stove on, Lily went into the pantry, and began to climb up the shelves, pulling herself up and wriggling along, once leaping neatly from one shelf to another, scrambling as she tried to locate the chocolate, she finally found it, making a quick grab and then looking down, instantly wishing she hadn't. She was ten feet up, not really that high, but she was a fairly small kid, only 3'6" and the distance from her face to the floor looked very, very long. She dropped the chocolate to the floor and attempted to climb down, but she slipped, and for the life of her she couldn't bring herself to move enough to swing back up.

Lily was not afraid of heights, not really, she was not afraid of most things, but for some unfathomable reason as she was hanging from the top shelf in her pantry she was terrified, so she called for help.

"Scorpius," she asked tentatively, gripping the shelf as hard as she could,

"Yes, Firefly?" She heard him call as his footsteps approached, oh so painfully slow,

"I can't get down," she said as he entered the small room, if she had been able to bring herself to look down she would have been able to see his eyes widen dramatically as he took in her predicament. He tried desperately to think of a solution as he whispered reassurances to the small, dangling girl above him, he was too short to reach up and pull her down, but too big for the shelves to support his weight. Unfortunately, she couldn't hold on for much longer, her hands were already slipping, so he came up with a greatly flawed plan, lacking any proper development and full of holes, but she was going to fall soon and it was all he had to work with.

"Firefly," he called up to her, "when I say go, let go of the shelf, I promise I'll catch you, okay?" Lily nodded, letting out a faint, squeaky,

"Kay," she trusted Scorpius, that was her fatal flaw, like her father, she trusted too much. When Scorpius gave the go ahead, she let go. She didn't scream, for that would alert her parents, and even then, risking broken bones, her parents' wrath was the most terrorizing thing Lily could think of. It was probably the accidental magic that saved them, time seemed to slow as Scorp caught her, and then proceeded to fall himself, their landing was soft, and despite the jarring feeling, it did them no serious harm, the loud bang that should have been was silenced to a small _thud_.

Scorpius had to smile as he once again found himself on the ground with the small red head on top of him, and his grin only grew as she said,

"I still want hot chocolate." So he got up and walked back to the kitchen, her following close behind, completely forgetting about her traumatizing incident, because she's _Lily_, and she always bounces back from stuff like that.

A little later, when the last sips of their drinks are gone, and she sits on the couch in his lap (because it's more comfortable that way, and they're still young enough that the action is innocent), he begins to gently play with her hair, something he always finds himself doing, and says,

"Now I know you're too old for fairy tales (as she had been insisting to everyone, despite the fact that she still read the book Scorpius had given her every night), but there's this one that's stuck in my head, I was wondering if I could tell it to you?" Lily didn't hesitate as she nodded, the fact that Scorp always came up with the _best_ stories much outweighing the fact that she is (self-proclaimed) too old and too proud for such accounts.

"Once there was a family, with two little girls and one mother, and one father, they were a very happy family until an evil wizard poisoned the littlest girl. . ."

Much later, when the older sister has defeated the evil wizard, the little sister revived, and the family united, Lily falls asleep, having been ignorant of the storm's wild ranting since Scorpius first began to speak. Scorpius sighed as he looked down at the little girl, not wanting to wake her, so he hefted her up, and stood, a little shakily, very glad he had let James and Albus talk him into doing their insane quidditch training regime, carefully, and very slowly, he mounted the stairs, taking them one at a time until at last, he stood by the open door to Lily's room, he gently laid her small frame on the bed, and moved to go, when he noticed Lily's small hands knotted into his pajama shirt, sighing to himself he slid into bed beside her, letting Lily curl into his larger frame.

Hours later Ginny would enter the room and find them like that, and smiling slightly she would take a picture and slide it into the shoebox beneath her daughter's bed, leaving them to wake up of their own accord.

_***;*;*;*;***_

_May 1, 2017_

"I don't want to go," Lily Potter pouted, feeling ridiculous in her pale yellow dress, her mother groaned in exasperation,

"I don't want to go either, but I still am, aren't I?," Lily however was not going to drop the topic that easily, and replied,

"You're married to Daddy; I'm just his daughter, so the Prophet pictures wouldn't be about me anyway."

"Actually," Ginny corrected, "they like taking a family shot." The eight year old groaned, taking off her dress and handing it to her mother in defeat, Ginny smiled apologetically at her youngest child, before leaving the dressing room to pay for the scorned garment. Lily pulled her cloths back on and went to join her mother, deep in thought.

By the time they went to meet Aunt Hermione and Rose at the ice cream parlor Lily had a vague idea about how she might be able to wriggle out of going to the stupid Final Battle Remembrance Ball, she'd have to talk with Scorp and Al later, right now though she had a quadruple scoop mint chocolate chip cone begging for her attention.

Four hours later the hideous yellow _thing _sat in the back of her closet, and she slouched with her brother and his best friend in the tree house that occupied the tallest oak in the backyard. They were talking over her plan, it was risky, but it might work, with proper planning that was. So they planned, Lily practiced her part, while the boys made arrangements to get everyone out of the house, Al would beg his parents to take him and James to Diagon Alley, since Lily had gone earlier, and Scorpius would offer to watch Lily, it was not a horrible plan, but there were several things that could go horribly wrong, fortunately (as well as shockingly), nothing did.

At a quarter to six Harry, Ginny, Albus and James left for Diagon Alley ("Fifteen minutes Al, that's all you're getting, got it?") and Scorp and Lily hurried to the fireplace. Scorpius snatched a handful of floo powder from the bowl on the mantle and offered it to the younger child, who accepted it gratefully. Taking a deep breath she turned to throw it, saying quietly,

"Wish me luck," Scorpius grinned,

"When have you ever needed luck, Firefly?" he asked giving her a playful shove, she glared at him, and stepped onto the hearth, throwing down the ash she called, quite clearly,

"Minister of Magic's office," and was whisked away. Scorpius sat down on the couch and stared at his watch, less than ten minutes later, she was back, and she was not happy. The tears she had figured out how to shed on command trickled down her face, joined by a few furious drops, her face was morphed into an angry scowl and her arms lay crossed over her chest. Scorpius stared in awe,

"He _resisted_?" He asked, disbelief evident in his tone as he gained some new respect for Kingsley Shacklebolt, Lily's crocodile tears were seriously hard to resist. Lily stomped her foot in a fit of rage, turning her glare to Scorpius,

"No!" she spat out, looking far angrier than any eight year old should, "I almost had him, he was so close to cracking, when Drew walked in ( Drew was Kingsley's assistant, she was notoriously immune to crocodile tears)" Scorpius blinked,

"Oh," he said. Lily nodded, all her rage used up, and sank to the ground in defeat,

"What do we do now?" She asked, Scorpius sighed,

"Now we admit defeat," Lily sprang back up, hands on her hips,

"We can't just _give up!"_ Scorpius looked sadly at her,

"This is _Drew_ we're fighting, there's no way we'll win." Lily groaned, unable to think of another plan.

"I blame you," she said at last,

The ten year old scoffed at his smaller friend, "How is this possibly my fault, if it's anyone's fault it's yours." Lily frowned, and shook her head,

"Nope," she said, "I came up with the plan, and risked being yelled at by my mother to go cry at Kingsley, you and Albus came up with the little things, like getting my parents out of the house, so it fell under your job to deal with Drew."

"No," Scorpius responded, "We did all the pre-planning; anything that happened while you were at Kingsley's office was your responsibility."

"No, it was yours."

"No, it was entirely your fault,"

"No it wasn't."

"Yes it was."

"NO!"

"YES!"

"NO!"

"YES!" They continued like that for a while until Lily came up with a compromise,

"Hey Scorp," she said,

"Ya, Firefly?"

"Why don't we blame Albus?"

"Deal."

_Next day_

"Do I have to go Daddy?" Lily asked her father, half an hour before the dreaded social event was due to start, she made her green eyes open wide, and her lip to jut forward just a bit, knowing her dad could never refuse her when she looked like this.

"Sorry pumpkin," he said as he kissed her temple, "you know I'd get out of it if I could." Lily sighed, seeing her attempt wasn't going to work.

The yellow dress felt odd, billowing out and ending at her knees. Ginny and Harry had decided that eight was too young to be exposed to the horrors of dress robes, which was why she wore the muggle garment. James had to wear them because he was fourteen, and that was how old Harry was when he'd been forced to wear them, Albus was wearing them because Scorpius was, Teddy was wearing them, as was Victoire, and everybody else, in fact the only person who wasn't wearing them besides Lily was Ginny, who refused to wear them for some unconceivable reason (something about "bowing to the will of society").

Lily still couldn't see why she couldn't wear her usual pants, but had let the topic drop when Uncle George threatened to drop her out the window. The dress, although not uncomfortable, was not what Lily was used to wearing, so when Drew came to make sure every last one of them came she was playing with the hem, and doing a very good job of wrinkling it.

Drew, obviously remembering the last time she had worn a dress (when Aunt Hermione and Aunt Fleur signed all the children up for ballroom dancing. Rght before their recital they'd had a huge mud fight, then end result being they were signed up for quidditch camp), kept her hand grasped firmly around Lily's arm as she apparated there, she then handed Lily off to Kingsley and apparated back to fetch the rest of them (in reality making sure no one in the Weasley/Potter clan attempted to escape).

Kingsley gave her a quick hug before ushering her into the Dance Hall, where she sat waiting for her family to arrive, five minutes later they did. The press descending on them like bee's to honey, "A family shot," "Just the boys," "A mother daughter one if you would," "all the children," it was at that point that Lily understood why they had to get to the ball an hour and a half early. Just as the vein on Harry's forehead began to throb they were led in into the long room where the banquet was to be served, and there they sat until everyone else arrived.

Dinner was served, speeches were made, several moments of silence, and an official memorial service was held, during all of this Lily twisted and squirmed and swung her short little legs underneath her (except for during desert, when Lily's attention was fully occupied), and then, at nine o'clock exactly, a pair of large wooden doors swung open to reveal the ball room. It was beautiful, an orchestra, a bar, tables to sit at, a dance floor, everything a ball goer could possibly want. Unfortunately for Lily, she was not a willing ball goer, so she listened to her usually absent self-preservation instincts and snuck underneath on of the snack-laden tables.

This was the position Lily remained in for the majority of the night, only emerging to grab food every once in a while. After about fifteen minutes of vigilant hiding she snuck very carefully out from under her shelter, grabbed the first bowl she saw, before quickly going under the table again. It was very lucky that the steel bowl she grabbed contained grapes, for you see, Lily rather liked grapes. Her fetish was not limited to just eating though, there was one particular activity (that frequently got her in trouble) which she very much liked to do with grapes, flicking them at her brothers' heads. Lily, using her supreme eight year-old logic, figured that since she had a bowl full of ammunition (more grapes than any one girl could ever eat) and plenty of targets (enough that it would take quite a while before she was caught) that she might as well indulge on her favorite grape-involved activity.

For the next half an hour, anyone who went to grab food from the table closest to the main entrance of the ball room would do a little jump, or let out an amusing shriek, which was how Scorpius Malfoy found Lily Potter. Figuring it would be more amusing to join her than stand around by himself (Albus had ditched him to go talk to Cassandra Wood) he sneaked over to the table, and then, when no one was looking, dropped on all fours and scuttled under the table.

Lily did not look at all perturbed by the fact that she had been caught red-handed doing something that was frowned upon in most societies, instead of trying to hide her grape-flicking actions she simply stuffed one in her mouth and held the bowl out in Scorpius' direction,

"Wanna help?" She asked around a mouthful of grapes, Scorpius paused and thought of Albus off with Cassandra, that lonely corner of his, and all the adults who felt the need to pinch his cheek (he didn't think people _actually_ did that) and exclaim how "cute" he was, he grabbed a fistful of grapes.

"Well Firefly, if you insist. . ." she smiled at him and picked up some grapes of her own,

"See that lady with the purple hat? I bet you I can hit her first."

They were, predictably, caught about ten minutes later by Drew (who else would it be), you see partnered grape-flicking is a great deal noisier than singular grape-flicking, for there are a great many things one can do in partnered grape-flicking (competitions, and giggling and bickering and such) that one can just not accomplish in solitary grape-flicking.

Drew was, understandably, very upset and dragged both of them out from under the table, taking each of them by the arms she hauled both of them out of the ballroom and deposited them in the Main Hall where they'd had their pictures taken, warning them not to move as she left, presumably to go find their parents. A smirk grew on Scorpius' face,

"Well we managed to get out of it after-all." Lily felt a great deal better after that.

_Next Day_

The day was warm, and sunny, light trickling in through the windows, shining on a head of red hair whose body was hidden mostly beneath a blanket. Her eyes blinked awake as she put her arms above her head and stretched. She had that wonderful feeling one gets when they get plenty of sleep after a long stressful week, and plenty of sleep she'd gotten, it was noon.

The day was half over, and yet Lily felt no regrets, eight year olds never tend to when it comes to wasting the day in bed (then again neither do most eighteen year olds). She pulled on her oldest most comfortable pair of robs, threw open her curtains and grabbed a brush for her hair. Her stomach grumbled as she turned to open her door, she walked down the stairs, smiling at the prospect of the breakfast that doubtlessly waited for her below.

As predicted, scrambled eggs and pancakes were waiting for her as she entered the kitchen, her dad smiling at her as she walked in. His hair was its usual mess and his glasses were hanging crookedly of his nose, her mother sat next to him, going over some papers for work. Just a normal Saturday morning, no one mentioned the night before as she grabbed a glass of pumpkin juice, in fact, no one said anything at all until an owl began to peck at their window.

It was brown, medium sized, completely average as far as owls go, doubtlessly from the Ministry. Two letters were tied to its talons, the first one was, as expected, addressed to Harry and Ginny, the second one, however, was dropped into Lily's lap.

The envelope was a standard Ministry one, thick, cream colored parchment, green ink spelled out _Lily L. Potter_ on the front, and there was a disfiguring lump towards the bottom of it. Lily gingerly pealed it open (for it was not often she got a letter in such a nice envelope), the first thing she grabbed out of it was a small section of parchment, which read,

_Lily,_

_I found this in my hair last night, I figured I had you and Scorpius to blame, keep it, I've spelled it to last forever,_

_Drew_

_P.S. Think on the bright side, a whole year before you and I have to be put in that dreadful situation again._

You see, Drew was not naturally a strict, no nonsense, anti-fun dictator, in fact she had started out her life as a care-free fun-loving child, but you see it was Drew who did all the grunt work in the Ministry (such as organizing balls), and because of that her personality was inevitable. Lily however did not, in her eight-year-old wisdom, know this, she was still reminded however that she actually liked Drew, and so smiled vibrantly at the letter, reaching into the envelope to find what caused the wrinkling bump in the smooth, stiff stationary of the envelope.

Her hand came out with a small glass container that fit easily in the palm of her small hand, inside lay a smooth purple grape. Lily smiled as she held it up in front of her, letting the sun shine through it and cast rainbows on the floor, grinning she put it in her pocket to place in her box later (which somewhere along the line had changed from a keep-away-from-brothers-box, to a Scorpius box), Life was good.

_***;*;*;*;***_

_2018_

The thing people often times don't realize about young love is that it is not always lovely. Young love can often manifest itself into cruel, malicious behavior, or in the case of Lily and Scorpius, constant bickering. They had entered the awkward stage where they (or at least Scorpius) were leaving childhood, but not quite into teenage-hood yet, the stage where hanging out with little red-headed girls was not considered a very fashionable thing to do, not of course that Scorpius ever stopped, he just acted a bit more superior than he had before. This led to indignation in Lily, hence the perpetual squabbling.

Things only worsened as Scorpius and Albus' first year of Hogwarts approached. They would soon be spending nine months at boarding school, away from home, away from Lily. Lily of course was terribly distraught by this, she had spent almost all of the last three years of her life in the company of Scorpius and Albus, they were her constant companions, her playmates, her childhood, and now they would be off gallivanting at Hogwarts by their selves, leaving Lily all alone at home. Being two years younger had never bothered her more.

Her distress led to bad moods, not helped along by the two boys' obvious excitement, and the usually cheerful girl was in an almost constant temper, which only worsened as September 1st approached.

The anticipated chaos did not disappoint as the dawned on the First of Spetember, Harry screamed at Kingsley through the floo, and Ginny screamed at Harry, and Albus screamed at James, and James screamed at Albus, and Lily screamed at everybody. Things were forgotten, trunks were dropped, animals were temporarily mistreated, and hair was left un-brushed. By the time they reached platform 9 ¾ everyone was in a foul mood (the exception being an enthusiastic Albus), Lily was close to tears, and Harry had, in a fit of accidental magic (he had yet to get his temper under control) blown up part of the kitchen.

It was James who spotted the Malfoys, Draco stood behind a bench, his arm wrapped respectfully around his wife's waist, and Draco sat in front of them, up straight, hands in his lap, the picture of pure-blood dignity, doubtlessly bored out of his mind. The image was shattered when Albus called to his best friend, the blonde boy shot out of his seat and over to the disheveled Potter family, he greeted his comrade in crime with a 'manly' one armed hug, and swung Lily up in the air, she was too big to go up on his shoulders now, so instead he swerved her around in a circle before setting her gently on the ground again.

The conversation continued much as it had for the last couple weeks. What house do you think you're going to be in? What classes are you looking forward to? I wonder what the sorting hat's song is going to be like this year. Lily quickly lost patience and told the two boys that they could talk about that on the train and tried to steer the conversation towards the Cannons vs. Falcons game. Albus responded by telling her to stop being a baby and that she'd be going to Hogwarts in two years anyway.

Maybe it was because that it was just sinking in that he was leaving, or maybe it was because Albus' comment was unnecessarily harsh, or maybe he was starting to feel just a little bit guilty about how he had been acting, whatever the reason, Scorpius did something he hadn't done in weeks, he sided with Lily against Albus,

"Leave her alone Al," and then to his recently over-looked, circumstantial sister, "ignore him, he's a prat." Albus was predictably insulted by his best friend's comment and chose to rant, in an indignant manner, about why that wasn't true. Seeing that both his little sister and best friend were, in fact, ignoring him, he switched tactics, going on offence.

"Maybe I'm a prat, but at least I don't have a dysfunctional friendship with my best mate's little sister." Scorpius gave an offended huff while Lily took point on the verbal assault,

"We are _not_ dysfunctional, we are the opposite of dysfunctional, we're. . . we're," it was at this point that her nine year old vocabulary ran out, "um, Scorpius, what's the opposite of dysfunctional?" Scorpius turned to look at the small child beside him, disbelief evident in his patronizing tone as he said,

"_Really_ Potter? You seriously don't know what the opposite of dysfunctional is?"

"I'm _nine_, I bet you didn't know what it was at nine either."

"When I was nine I didn't spend my time with-" Here Albus cut Scorpius off gleefully,

"See, _dysfunctional_," he said. Lily crossed her arms over her chest and glared at her brother,

"Are not, we're extremely functional!" Comprehension began to cross her features as her mind caught up with what she had said, turning to Scorpius she said,

"I deserved that 'Really?' didn't I?"

"Yes Firefly, yes you did," Scorpius retorted. Lily looked as if she were about to make a scornful reply (for Scorpius' response had been less than generous) when Albus' pocket gave off a loud squeal. It was not, in fact, Albus' pocket that gave off the offending noise, but rather the watch inside it (Albus had been excited about getting that watch in a way that was uncharacteristic for most eleven year olds, but then again, Albus had never been a typical eleven year old), telling its owner that in less than five minutes the Hogwarts Express would be departing the station.

There was a mad scramble of hugs and kisses and rushed goodbyes, as well as a fair few last minute reminders before Scorpius came to stand in front of Lily again. He pulled her into a bone-crushing hug, and she asked, in a small, tentative voice

"You'll write won't you?" He gave her a tight, consoling smile and whispered back,

"Of course." Lily looked up at him, eyes uncertain, and asked,

"Once a week?"

"_Every_ week," he agreed. He sighed, "Bye Firefly."

"Bye Scorp," she said, and then, with one last sigh, he was gone, him an Albus hopping on the train right before it left the platform.

They wrote three times a week.

She saved every one of his letters.

_***;*;*;*;***_

_Easter Break, 2019_

After Albus' and Scorpius' first year of Hogwarts ended Lily and Scorpius were back on track as far as the whole friendship thing went. The bickering remained, but it had lost its vicious edge, instead leaning more towards a playful aspect, and if the volume escalated out of control sometimes, that was okay. What else could you expect when you put two strong-willed individuals in close proximity to each other for extended periods of time?

Both Lily and Scorpius continued to write as he entered his second year, although not as often (only once a week), and Lily continued to save his letters in her now close-to-over-flowing box. Scorpius made the Slytherin quidditch team (as a beater), and Lily made a friend with a half-blood witch her own age who had moved in down the street (Cassiopeia Veronica Bakerson). Life went on.

Although the boys came home for Christmas ("_How can you possibly eat that much?" Scorpius enquired of the girl sitting next to him._

_ "I'm ten years old, my metabolism is really high," she responded._

_ "So is your vocabulary," her Uncle Ron added, he was ignored._

_ "A pig more like it," Scorpius retorted. Lily laughed and replied,_

_ "At least I don't look like a fairy princess." Scorpius choked on his potatoes,_

_ "I do not look like a fairy princess," he managed to spit out between violent coughs. Lily however was prone to disagree with him,_

_ "Yes you do, you hair's that pale blonde, and your cheekbones are really distinct, and your nose has that little turn to it. . ."_

_ "No he doesn't Lils," Albus cut in, Scorpius had opened his mouth to thank his best friend, but Albus wasn't done, "more like an elf really." Lily scrutinized the young Malfoy carefully,_

_ "Maybe," she conceded, "but a very feminine elf." Scorpius groaned and bashed his head against the table,_

_ "For the love of Merlin . . ."_), but it wasn't until Easter break that anything significant happened.

You see Lily Potter was, as it may have been mentioned, a very small girl, and although her family was of the magical branch, she lived in a muggle neighborhood. Her small stature, paired with her tendency to dress oddly and talk about magic, and wands, and dragons and such, when in the muggle world ten year olds were considered too old to talk about such things, lead her to be a prime target for bullies.

Lily was usually very good at dealing with bullies, uncommonly good in fact, but there was one particular child (and his gang of friends) that, no matter what she tried, would not leave her alone. This child's name was Gavin Touchpike, he was fourteen years old and two-hundred pounds, on the one occasion Harry had seen the kid he had remarked that he looked extraordinarily like Dudley when he was his age.

It was the second to last day of Easter break, at five O'clock in the afternoon, when Scorpius and Lily (Albus was with Rose) were walking back from a nearby park, that Lily ran into Gavin, again. He towered over her skinny frame, but she, as always, held her ground with a defiant, idiotic bravery, that her Mum said came from her Father, the rest of her family was inclined to agree, Lily was an awful lot like Harry (and that wasn't necessarily a good thing).

As the bully stepped forward to engage Lily in a verbal sparring match Scorpius remained a good six feet behind the scene. Not because he was a coward, but rather because he believed (unlike most) that Lily should be allowed to fight her own battles, she was plenty capable after all.

The argument itself was rather anti-climactic, and was just coming to an uneventful end when Touchpike decided to make a jab at the tall, lean stranger standing slightly way from the disagreement. The comment itself was not particularly cutting, nor was it well thought out, but it was aimed towards her friend, and above all, Lily was a very loyal person. So that statement did what all else had failed to do, it made Lily snap.

Lily had two older brothers, a Head Auror for a father, more boy cousins than she could count, as well as some of the toughest witches in Magical Britain for female relations, all of whom were happy to teach her how to throw a punch.

The hit she threw however was not particularly elegant, nor did she use a powerful technique, it was, in the spirit of schoolyard brawls, simply a movement of the arm of a very, _very_ angry young girl. To say Touchpike responded badly would be an understatement.

It was at this point in the cycle of events that Scorpius decided to forgo his spot on the sidelines in favor of a more active role in the fight. For one thing, Lily was outnumbered six to one, plus he did not really enjoy being referred to as a spineless girl's blouse.

The scuffle did not last very long, in fact it was not but ten minutes later when Scorpius and Lily limped back to the Potter residence, bruised, bloodied, but ultimately victorious.

Scorpius had a bloody nose and fractured knuckle, as well as two bloodied knees and ripped pants.

Lily's injuries consisted of a black eye, a large cut above her right eyebrow, a split lip, and her personal favorite, a missing tooth.

As the front door swung open Scorpius prepared himself for the lecture they would doubtlessly receive. So it was understandable that he was shocked when Harry and Ginny's only response was to sit them down and heal their injuries. Ginny's expression grew momentarily serious as the last of their bruises were rubbed with balm and their cuts faded to thin white scars,

"Did you use magic?" She asked, when they responded vehemently that they had not she smiled,

"Right then," Ginny said, the incident seemingly forgotten, "what do you guys want for dinner?"

Lily answered pasta, and Ginny obviously approved of the answer for she turned to her husband and said, "We want pasta (for Harry did the cooking in the house)." Scorpius' only thought was that Lily's parents were so much cooler than his.

_Later that night_

The proper protocol stated that Lily's tooth should have been placed under her pillow for the tooth fairy, but Lily was fairly sentimental for a ten year old, so instead she placed in her box.

After all, the memory was worth much more than the galleon.

_***;*;*;*;***_

**A/N So I'm done with the pre-Hogwarts years, part two might be a while, but I'm working on it. Please, Please review, your comments mean the world to me. **


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